Last Week's Thrifty Moves

** WARNING **  Long post.  Crazy, busy week ahead!!!

This past Sunday was much more relaxed than the one before, thankfully.  I began my day with a hot cup of coffee after sleeping in almost to 8:00.  It was windy, but sunny as I got busy making waffles for our Sunday breakfast.  After breakfast I pulled out everything I thought I needed to feed us throughout the week.  A pot roast from the chest freezer and a container of pork verde.  I also took some carrots, celery and onion from the crisper drawer and got busy chopping up those veggies.  I put the broth I had made the day before back into my medium size slow cooker along with the veggies and leftover turkey meat and allowed the soup to cook all day.  Later we cooked up egg noodles and I served them separate of the soup so I could enjoy it as well.

Pot roast dinner

Monday, before I left for work, I seasoned up the pot roast with garlic powder, onion powder and pepper.  I let it cook all day and when we got home I prepared some rice for the girls and made gravy with the drippings and some beef broth I had in the pantry.  I also steamed some broccoli in a bowl in the microwave and then stirred it with some butter, salt and pepper.

Tuesday I picked up the girls from cheer and band practice.  Once home we reheated the pork verde in the microwave and served it up with tortillas, shredded lettuce and sour cream for some quick tacos.  The girls got busy with chores and homework and I worked on some things around the house.

Wednesday I was on a run once again leaving work and heading straight to pick up the youngest from cheer practice.  Then we headed off to Fred Meyer to pick up kitty litter and use up some coupons that were about to expire on some items that just happened to be on sale.  Then up the street a half a block to the feed store where I picked up two bags of chicken feed to put away for winter, which was also on sale.  Yay!  When we got home we had to set out trash cans for us and both neighbors on each side for pickup the next morning, put away the feed and litter, sweep out the garage, put away the groceries, feed our animals and fix supper.  I made sirloin steaks with a salad and heated up a rice pouch I'd received as one of my Friday Freebies.

Free stuff!

Thursday was our craziest, busiest day of the week.  I had to be at work at 7:00 as I was leaving early and didn't want to use up any of my vacation time to cover my hours.  Before I left I made some wraps with ham, cream cheese, cheddar cheese and lettuce, rolled them up and packed them away in my lunch box along with my regular lunch.  After work I picked up my youngest early from cheer practice and we headed off to her orthodontist appointment (she is doing so great!), then back to the high school to pick up my oldest from band practice.  There is a park next to the high school where we ate the wraps at a picnic table and enjoyed some warmer weather for a change.  Then back to the high school for my youngest to get changed into her orchestra dress and to perform there in her honor clinic concert, which we thoroughly enjoyed, before we got to head home arriving around 8:30.  Those days are not my favorite ones to organize and pull off, but I'm always happy when we can make it happen and thankfully we did.

Friday morning we discovered our upstairs toilet was leaking around the flapper.  I seated it really good and we left for the day with plans to fix it that evening.  After work I headed home to pick up the girls, dropped my youngest off at her school for a Halloween dance and then the oldest and I went to Dollar Tree so I good pick up some items for a planned Christmas project (details coming) and she could get some stuff on her list as well.  Then off to Home Depot for a flapper ($5.48) for the toilet.  Once we got home we switched out the flapper, adjusted the chain, gave it a test flush, adjusted the chain again, gave it another test flush and done!  My daughter was amazed at how quick and easy it was to fix the toilet.  I think, judging by the extra $$ on our water bill this month, it had been silently leaking for some time and just finally started making noise that morning.  Glad we have it fixed now.

While at Home Depot we did some "window" shopping in the appliance department.  Oh my goodness gracious.  Yeah....

My daughter had her second band competition on Saturday so our window for getting things done around the house was small.  While she cleaned the upstairs bathroom and got ready to go the young one and I went outside and harvested what was left in our garden and got it all cleared out.  I trimmed one of our bushes and we cleaned up the backyard a bit.  We were able to give the chickens a nice pile of greens to enjoy and scratch around in.  Last thing was to disconnect all of the hoses, drain them, roll them and then hang them up for the winter.

I dropped the oldest off at the high school to catch the bus for competition and then went to Wal-Mart to pick up a filter and motor oil for the truck.  I had forgotten to get that when I was there last, ugh.  So back I went.

Also, during the week, I planned out our menus for Thanksgiving.  I ended up doing two of them and will use whichever one depending on who all RSVPs for dinner.  I have a small crowd menu and a larger crowd menu, complete with desserts and beverages.  And almost all that I need to prepare is already in my house.  Yay!  I printed out my menus and added them to my new day planner.  Since I was on a roll I also made up our Christmas menus.  They are pretty simple to put together as we tend to have the same things year after year.  It is what we like and a big part of what makes our holidays traditional.  I change up a couple items each year, but for the most part it isn't very different.  The girls were excited when I showed them the menus.  Around here it is all about the food at the holidays.

Homemade turkey soup

I rinsed out a bottle of shower gel and used up the last bit there was before tossing it into the recycle bin.

I picked up pine cones at work and brought them home to use in some Christmas decoration project I have in mind.

She discovered her blankets warm out of the dryer

I trimmed my oldest daughter's bangs.

I also collected some more trim from the FREE WOOD bin for my stash as well as a piece of a door jamb with weather stripping on it.  I plan to remove the weather strip and use it to replace the old one on my back door.  That will save me about $10 not having to purchase a replacement at Home Depot.  I replaced the weather stripping on our front door last fall and now I can fix up the other door and we should be set for a while.

That about sums it up for us.  How was your thrifty week?